This invention relates to a trash entry chute device which facilitates the use of standard grocery bags, such as limp plastic bags, as disposable liners in rigid top-opening waste or trash containers by supporting a bag in the container, holding the bag open to recieve trash or garbage, guiding trash or garbage into the bag, and preventing trash or garbage from falling between the bag and the container. Standard paper grocery bags may also be used to advantage as liners in containers equipped with the device of the invention.
For many years stores, particularly groceries, have provided relatively stff paper bags for their customers' purchases. These bags are often used as disposable liners in trash baskets and garbage cans. This practice has become so widespread that wastebaskets and garbage containers are now manufactured with dimensions which allow using standard grocery paper bags in this way.
Recently groceries, supermarkets and other stores have begun to use inexpensive thin plastic film bags such as the so-called t-shirt bag with handle loops described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,557 instead of the familiar brown paper bag. Because these bags are far more water-resistant than paper they are more useful for handling garbage and other wet trash, but they are too limp to stand up unsupported in a trash container. In order to use these and other limp plastic bags as liners, the top of the bag is pulled up over the top edge and down the outside of the container. If the bag fits the container well enough to allow this to be done, it may be rather unsightly and the bag being too short will then not be supported by the container bottom and may tear.
Many devices have been proposed to hold plastic bags open to allow filling them more easily for a variety of applications. U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,689 describes a device which is to be mounted on a vertical surface such as a wall or a door. It supports a plastic bag by its handle loops for use as a trash container. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,530,553 and 4,659,045 describe collars for disposable trash bags which hold a bag open, but the devices will not support a bag in a container. U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,835 describes a trash container which has brackets bolted inside to support a plastic bag in the container by placing the handle loops of the bag over the brackets. No provision is made to keep carelessly discarded trash from falling between the bag and the container. U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,916 describes a container having upstanding ears on its top edge on which a plastic bag may be hung by its handles in an open position for easy loading. There is no provision to prevent items from falling between the bag and the container. U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,561 describes a sleeve device which fits inside a plastic bag to be used in a trash compactor. The device protects the bag from damage by the lateral crushing pressure of the compactor. The device extends the full depth of the bag and does not support the bag which is held in place between the walls of the device and the compactor housing by friction. None of the above inventions is suitable for the purposes of the present invention, and none provide all of its advantages.